Halo: Eckland
by Kamikaze duck
Summary: 2550. Walter Eckland is thrown into the ravenous Human-Covenant war, championing the cause of a mysterious figure. Through all of it, a man finds himself.


_San Diego, California_

_Standard USMC Mook Base_

_December 21, 2012 2000_

He sat there with a mischievous smile. This mortal was interesting in that he seemed bored with everything around him. He excelled at all the tasks given to him. The being stood there, everything around him frozen in time like a comedic painting. This awards dinner for the elite was filled with fake people kissing ass and wanting favors from those higher than them. The creature scoffed at them: mortals that were so full of themselves. No wonder humanity was declining so rapidly, all they delighted was themselves and their petty greed. Humans were loathsome creatures, always wanting more, always so ambitious. They would backstab each other for their wanton gain. He walked around the party pulling minor pranks, giggling to himself. Then the mysterious stranger came to the main attraction: Walter Eckland.

The boy was selfless and ambitious, in the good way of course. Always doing what needed to be done. He always excelled, always put others before himself, but always was left empty. The boy seemed to be missing something. A formula or riddle that needed to be solved. He had served a tour of duty in Pakistan and fought a semi competent opponent, the Pakistani Army. But even that didn't seem to quench his thirst. Here he had everything, glory, high standing among his piers. He had served through the brief war as a 2nd Lieutenant and had great standing with his superiors. But to be here seemed to bore the young man. The Stranger thought of what might be done to 'help' the lad.

His face so full of mirth he remembered that only about 100 light years away, humanity was struggling to retain its right to exist from a genocidal alien hegemony. Maybe this boy would like an adversary that was not only competent but held the technological edge. Teaching this mortal to be sated would quite the lesson for him. Looking back on the man's memories, the Stranger could see that this man practically reveled in war. He strategized to an extremely optimal level that few could encounter or even surpass as a field officer. He seemed to have a certain 'luck' about him.

The being looked around him and sighed, this planet was dismal in its events. The occupants, human 'reclaimers' that the Forerunners had implanted here as they had on numerous other planets. All the humans seemed to use the same dreary name for their planets, 'Earth." He giggled at the thought; some of the countries certainly had amusing names though, such as Zimbabwe.

This boy was one of the actual few interesting mortals here. Oh the potential of this one could go far. He just had to be unleashed; his ambition would take him to unparalleled heights among this galaxy. He just needed a helping hand and a shove in the right direction. The Stranger smiled as he came upon the young man.

"Yes you will do just fine my friend, you see I'm particularly bored at the moment, my bald headed friend is doing alright at the moment and doesn't need anymore picking on, so I thought I would try you." The Stranger smiled and thought where to put this boy.

The strange being frowned, forgetting he had frozen time all around him for the better part of a half hour as he frolicked through the party, observing it's pathetic occupants. All of who were to oblivious to the Grand Scheme of things.

"I think it's time we take you boys out of your slipspace bubble, I'm sure your ancestors wouldn't mind if I put you back in real space." He thought about it for a moment and then realized that they were already in real space. "Well that just makes it a bit easier for me." He sighed and then snapped his fingers. Time itself remained frozen but Walter phased out.

Walter continued his solemn staring at the statues on the wall. Then it hit him, all the noise, it was gone. He turned around and saw a man in white robes standing there. Just smiling at him.

"Hello Walter." The Stranger started. Walter seemed confused; he looked around and noticed everyone frozen. He took stock of the situation and quickly gathered himself. Time and space itself had seemed to stop.

"What the hell is going on?" Walter stood there staring the man down. The man merely smiled back.

"Oh just freezing time, you know, the usual. I do this when I'm bored. I walk around the cosmos looking for mortals to dilly with."

"Oh so you're claiming to be some type of god are you now?" He looked around and then walked over to Senator Harry Reid, poking him in the shoulder. He didn't seem to move. So he pushed him completely over. Standing there, he gawked at what just happen. Everything really was frozen in place.

"I told you, time is frozen Walter. Would you like some Tarisian Ale? It's well aged, around 4,000 years I think. I managed upon it after I helped a certain Revan fellow out of a situation. He had blown up some kind of space station and –"

"Really? Do I look like I give a damn? Who the hell are you and what do you want?" Eckland was growing weary of this man. He just seemed to ramble on about random things.

"Oh no time for foreplay? Very well Mr. Eckland. Let me elaborate and show you at the same time." The Stranger snapped his fingers and they were standing over a snowy battlefield.

"Welcome to the Second Battle of Arcadia Mr. Eckland. Rather amazing site isn't it? If you look over there, you can see a UNSC armored group slaughtering wraith tanks, oh wait! Here comes the Scarab! And BOOM the entire line is gone!" The Stranger clapped excitedly. "Isn't this exciting?"

Walter was too shocked to say anything. All around him a seemingly futuristic battle was taking place on a wide snowy plain. It was terrifyingly beautiful. What looked like purple whales seemed to be firing blue beams of light in the distance. Nearer to him a whooshing sound could be heard as well as yells and the staccato of gunfire. What looked like LRVs and hovering purple bikes seemed to duel over the road. Small hover aircraft seemed to duel for air supremacy, while up in the clouds a seemingly kilometer long blocky objected dueled with a smaller whale like structure, the smaller one had a ring around the bottom, some time of corvette or destroyer. A massive boom ensued and the next thing Walter saw was the purple craft split completely in half and start a terminal velocity descent to the ground. If Walter had to guess, whatever that weapon was, if pointed at the ground, it would have caused massive damage, thankfully the purple ship was higher in altitude and the shot seemed to head through the atmosphere. But that didn't mean the sound wasn't loud. His ears were ringing and hurting, he put his hand to the side of his head and felt hot blood.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot about that. Here let me help you." The being closed his eyes for a fraction of a second and then opened them. "Done, you should be able to hear now."

"Holy shit, what was that thing?"

"Oh that was just a Marathon cruiser destroying a Covenant Corvette."

This piqued his interest a bit and he let down his guard. "Who are the good guys?"

"Oh that would be the humans in those blocky looking contraptions they call space faring vessels. Grotesque really. The Covenant really have a thing for beauty. Although in another universe those vessels were designed by art majors." The stranger laughed merrily before pointing out at the ground battle.

There seemed to be what appeared to be human infantrymen holed up in a trench line. The valiant defenders were being wildly charged by aliens with squid like faces and fancy blue swords. They roared and impaled the human defenders, rushing through their lines like the tip of a spear.

"Oh the poor human defenders, whatever shall they do, oh I know! Watch and appreciate the tenacity of humanity boy."

Eckland watched as the marine who was impaled pulled out some kind of detonator and thumbed the trigger. In their last moments, the alien holding him could only show horror on its face, and if one could read beyond the faceless mask of the human's helmet, they would see a giant smile. 75 meters in all directions, C12 had been laid and blown. An entire Covenant battalion decimated in a flash.

"Humanity is fighting a losing war out here Walter. But they have something your world does not. They stand united. The bickering and squabbling is replaced by raw vengeance to defend what is theirs. They give themselves selflessly for their cause."

"At least we make strides to unite ourselves-"

The stranger interrupted and bellowed, "You don't do anything to help but cause more pain and suffering. Many thousands of civilians died in that little war you fought in. Not to mention throwing off the world order of your planet. China and Russia are now apprehensive of the United States and oil prices are rocketing up. Soon your world will not have the resources to catapult them into Tier 3 and you will descend into a mess like many other races. Humanity is nothing if not ambitious Walter. But in quite a few cases, that ambition can destroy humanity. Your people theorize about where to go and how to get there, but they put none of it into action. They stand indecisive, fighting over petty things. Your entire government reacts of stupidity. But you, you're special. You have that spark that sets you apart from your fellow human. You can lead and do it damn well. Here I stand, offering you an opportunity to expand your horizons, to journey out and make change possible. Your people already have their star gate program, but they are held back by bureaucracy in the Government. China and Russia have already had their ships disabled in some fashion and your Destiny expedition turned into a Sunday afternoon sci-fi soap opera." The Mysterious being stood there with his arms crossed.

Here was the chance of a lifetime to actually do something with himself, no matter how farfetched the situation seemed. He saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears what is out there. This man was right, his world was beyond fucked up, there seemed to be no real notion to even go back. Walter had always been fascinated with space and it's infinite possibilities. He was even hoping of getting into the NASA program some how.

"You said my people had their own ships?" Walter inquired.

"Yes, but going to them would hardly help the situation. This is not something I'm offering them, it's a opportunity to change things your way. You have charisma and lead like no other. A modern day Hannibal really. You may be a Lieutenant at the moment, but your potential for a human is surprisingly very strong. I can see many paths into the future you may take Walter. But it's your decision to make which one you take. Not to mention I'm investing my time in this so I can get my usual entertainment. Picard has been boring as of late…all those wasted red shirts…Anyways back on topic! Mr. Eckland, would you like to be a hero of history? Yes or no, time is short for you and infinite for me."

"I don't even know who the hell you are and what this conflict is. All I know is that is one hell of an opportunity to do something interesting instead of waiting for China or Russia to pull something. But at the same time I don't know." Eckland paused and considered the possibilities.

"Well back home you could be pushing papers and being utterly useless. Not to mention you have no family and your friends are only people who like you for your success. Well Rogers seems to have a keen liking for you since you saved his life. But he is in Korea."

They stood their watching the UNSC and Covenant trade blows. Thinking. That was all Walter could do right now. He was so immersed in what course of action to take that he didn't notice the being move to his side.

"Times up, I'm just going to go with the decision you made subconsciously the moment you watched that cruiser blow apart that corvette. Here is the game plan Mr. Eckland. I have arranged records to cover your existence in the UNSC datacenters and put a reasonable sum of money in your name. You will have your bachelor's degree, so as to help you climb the ranks faster. But you will have to start as a grunt unfortunately. Those are the rules of this agreement. If you succeed in curbing the covenant menace, which I have every confidence you will. I will pop back in and offer you another job. Otherwise, you can just return to your 'Earth' right now if you so please. But then again your 'Earth' is so dismal and boring." The being strutted around with his hands clasped behind his back counting down from ten.

"Okay! I will fight for this UNSC. Any background information I should know before plunging into this fuckfest?" Walter nervously inquired. He didn't like the hastiness of the situation. Hell he didn't even know who the hell this guy was.

"Well alright Mr. Eckland, I will pop in from time to time to give advice, throw you a bone, etc etc. This is your first bone, I will leave you a datapad in you're locker at boot. Do stay alive. This is my only source of entertainment, watching mortals row at each other that is."

"Fine, where is this boot camp? And one more thing before you take me there, what is your name?"

Before he got an answer, Walter found himself teleported again, this time he was in a temperate forest region with Mountains in the distance. Taped to his chest was a note.

_Do try and stay alive Mr. Eckland. Humanity needs another savior. And good luck on your endeavors, I'll pop in and say hi from time to time and inquire on your excellent health. Oh and one piece of advice: make friends, they are great for tight spots._

_-Q_


End file.
